There are available various booth-type photographic apparatuses or photo booths for taking a certificate or identification picture. One typical example of them is configured as shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the photo booth, generally indicated with a reference 800 in FIG. 1, includes a generally rectangular housing 801 having a photo studio 802 defined therein. The housing 801 has provided therein a camera unit 803 that captures an image of a person (will also be referred to as “user” hereunder wherever appropriate) as an object inside the photo studio 802, and a printer 804 that prints an image captured by the camera unit 803. The housing 801 has an entrance 805 through which a user enters the photo studio 802. The entrance 805 is provided with a light-proof curtain 806. The photo studio 802 has provided therein a stool 807 on which the user as an object sits for photography. Further, the photo booth 800 includes an illumination unit 809 as well as a coin slot, safe, etc. (not shown).
When the user as an object enters the photo studio 802 through the entrance 805 and sits on the stool 807, the above photo booth 800 gets ready for taking a picture of him or her. The camera unit 803 in the photo booth 800 takes a picture of the user as an object sitting on the stool 807 with a flare of flashlight, and outputs image data thus acquired as a visible image from the printer 804.
In this conventional photo booth 800, a front mirror (at the camera unit 803) has provided thereon a marking (not shown) to which the user as an object should fit the top of head (will be referred to as “head top” hereunder) to bring the head to a predetermined position. The user should manually turn the stool 807 to adjust the height of the latter until the head top comes to the marking.
Also, in simple photo booths often found at street corners or in sales situations, the user has to bring the head to a predetermined position in relation to a camera by adjusting the angular position of the camera or otherwise positioning the camera. Such manual positioning of the user's head cannot assure any stable vertical position of the face in a resultant picture in many cases. Generally, if the overhead region between the picture top end and the head top of the imaged object is large, the picture will provide an impression of no emphasis given to the face of the imaged object and thus object's face will have less appeal. On the contrary, the overhead region, if small, will provide an impression that the imaged user is confined in a narrow place, and the object's face will have less appeal in this case as well.
In the case of ordinary pictures other than the certificate or identification pictures, there is found a tendency that an object is positioned in the center of a picture. Thus, the overhead region of the picture is apt to be larger in area than necessary. Positioning the object's head in the center of a commemorative picture or a portrait will result in a larger overhead region, which will lessen the appeal of the face image. Further, such positioning made in taking a landscape picture will lead to the sky occupying a large portion of the picture, which will spoil the appearance of any user as an object in the picture.